Amoris Laetitia

Here, I will offer a few thoughts on how this document guides pastoral ministers faced with challenging situations which, at first glance, seem to be without ideal or quick solutions.

In this article, I will explore what Pope Francis teaches in The Joy of Love about the family as a means and as a school of reconciliation.

We now come to the last chapter in The Joy of Love. Here, the Holy Father does not present us with any new themes.

A couple approaches a priest, seeking to be married in the Church. They are living together and have been for some time.

Near the end of this chapter of Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis gives us a good interpretive lens for reading this entire document.

In this chapter, Pope Francis focuses our attention on how the Catholic community can – and should – offer pastoral ministry to families in all stages of their development

Dominum et Vivicantem. Lord and Giver of Life. This title, from the Nicene Creed, affirms that it is part of God’s very nature as Love to give life.

We now arrive at what Pope Francis intends to be the core of The Joy of Love: Chapter Four, which we will look at now, and Chapter Five, which we will look at in the next issue of Harvest.

Pope Francis devotes Chapter III of The Joy of Love to a summary of Church teaching on marriage and the family. For the Holy Father, this teaching is no “dry and lifeless doctrine.”

In the first chapter of The Joy of Love, we saw a lectio divina, or sacred reading, of Psalm 128 which offered us a Biblical perspective on marriage and family life.

In this first chapter, the Holy Father invites us to contemplate the married couple pictured in Psalm 128.

Contemporary life challenges any married couple or family who seeks to live by the way of Christ.

On a rainy (not snowy, yet!) Sunday afternoon in Buffalo, I am writing my annual pre-Christmas Harvest column with a few suggestions for your reading or for last minute Christmas gifts.